Phénix

This tea has a personality and is not what I would have expected from a tea entitled Phenix. It is nothing like what I image a bird which could rise from its own ash would taste like. Not even a marshmallow peep version…
At first I wasn’t sure what I was smelling… vanilla, butter or caramel? It’s sweet like a brown sugar bourbon sauce made with a heavy cream. You can smell the richness of… whatever… it smells fattening. LOL It smells divine. Almost like fresh caramel corn and scent lasts through the steeping.

There are little nubbies of goodness mixed throughout the tea and they taste okay. I was afraid they were toasted rice or some other strangeness in the tea but I imagine they are what give this tea its rich buttery quality.

I do advise sticking to the 3 minute mark in steeping because I let it get to close to five and the tea is verging on bitter. Not bad but annoying. Milk and sugar might put this busy body back on track though.

Update: Oh yes, this is fab with milk. Sigh… perfect snacky bedtime tea. Sure there is caffeine but I can’t sleep anyway.

This was a good black tea. Not incredibly memorable, nor better than Wedding Imperial or Pleine Lune, but a good flavored black tea in the chocolae, caramel flavor profile.